Improvements should be made to auditing and appraisal committees at the nation’s schools to better protect the rights of students, two Control Yuan members said yesterday.
The committees handle cases involving complaints about gender inequality in schools, as well as the use of corporal punishment against students, but the majority of committee members are school staff, which makes it difficult for committee members from outside the school to play a significant role, Control Yuan members Tsai Chung-yi (蔡崇義) and Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said.
Students who have been victims of corporal punishment or discrimination are also excluded from the committees’ deliberations, which is a breach of their rights to express their views, the Control Yuan members said.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The Ministry of Education should use Children’s Day, which was yesterday, as an opportunity to make improvements, they said.
Citing an example of a case where a student’s rights were breached, Tsai and Tien said that a student surnamed Chia (甲) at Shi-Yuan Senior High School in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯) was forced by a teacher surnamed Chen (陳) to kneel for hours, and to hold heavy wooden boards and water pipes as a form of corporal punishment in 2017.
The student was also subjected to personal insults that made reference to his genitals, they said, adding that the psychological impact of the abuse caused the student to miss several classes.
Chen was suspended for one year after an investigation by the Control Yuan found that he had “deeply traumatized Chia, both physically and mentally,” they said.
Through the investigation, the Control Yuan learned that the majority of school appraisal committee members are school staff, and the opinions of outside committee members are overlooked when disagreements occur, Tsai and Tien said, adding that students are not represented at the meetings.
“Freedom from physical and mental violence is a basic human right of children. Do not let children grow up with injuries caused by the education system,” they said.
The ministry should seek to improve the human rights literacy of educators through pre-employment and ongoing training, they added.
“The prohibition of corporal punishment and the protection of children from violence are already national education policies,” they said. “The best gift we can give the nation’s children on Children’s Day is to put more emphasis on the protection of their rights.”
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
SAFETY IN REGULATION: The proposal states that Chiayi should assess whether it is viable to establish such a district and draft rules to protect clients and sex workers The Chiayi City Council passed a motion yesterday to assess the viability of establishing a regulated red-light district. The council yesterday held its last session of the year, at which its fiscal 2024 budget was approved, along with 61 other proposals. The proposal to assess the viability of establishing a red-light district was put forward by independent Chiayi City Councilor Molly Yen (顏色不分藍綠支持性專區顏色田慎節). The proposal cited 2011 amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulate that city and county governments can pass autonomous regulations on the sex trade to manage the industry and guarantee industry workers’ rights. A ban on the
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
STABILITY AND CHANGE: Flagging in recent polls, Ko this week pledged to maintain President Tsai’s foreign policy, with an emphasis on improving China relations Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart” in response to accusations that he is pivoting his campaign to align closer with the ideology of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the face of flagging polls. Ko made the remark at an agricultural policy conference in Taipei, repeating his comments from an interview with CTS News a day earlier. Ko told the CTS host that he would continue to pursue President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national defense and foreign policy in general, but with an emphasis on establishing a rapport with